I should create a notebook in that hotel and write a few useful tips for me and read them every hour. I even already had three valuables tips for writing on it, the first would be: don’t kill too many monsters, but if you do, get away from that place as soon as possible. The second tip would be: If you hear strange noise, run and hide in a place where you can fight without worrying about your back. And the third tip would be: don’t forget about your past mistakes.
“I guess that I’m stupid enough to make a mistake twice.”
Another useful note to write down: you also have to train your mind and make decisions faster. That would be more useful than just stare blankly at some huge creatures flying around you. However, I was lucky the birds didn’t see very well in the dark, and since I didn’t move an inch, two of them didn’t notice me. The only one who landed near me felt my smell. When the creature looked at me, finally I snapped out of it and ran for my life towards the nearest building. The bird, which was probably a hawk, began to chase me, but its strong point was flying not running. I threw myself at the glass door, and without wasting time, I got up and run to the stairs.
However, I stopped, I didn’t hear the sound of the mutant hawk running anymore. Instead, I heard the sound of glass shattering. When I looked back, I saw the large hawk trying to enter the building, but it was too tall to be able to enter while standing. That creature also had intelligence, because it attempted to the building while crouching. But it was too slow, thanks to that I shot a barrage of bolts towards the monster face. A few bolts managed to do some damage, but the creature managed to block most of the bolts with its massive wings.
“This kind of bolt is useless, damn it!”
The creature retread, but it didn’t leave me alone. Like the others, it began to devour the frog’s corpses, and even when they finished their meal, they continued to fly around the building.
“I guess that they want something less cold… anyway, how did those things managed ate the frog’s tongues?”
Maybe with luck, they would die thanks to the poison, but I’m not lucky enough to such a thing happen. I had to kill them, I wanted their evolution coins, anyway. Besides, I was in a place that they couldn’t enter, probably. I couldn’t be so sure, those things claws and beaks looked quite powerful. If the fat rat could destroy a few centimeters of ground and walls, those mutant hawks could too. A new tip to write down later: never underestimate your enemies.
Those monsters were huge, so almost every bolt that I shot hit them. However, their skin was too thick. While they were flying, I returned to the street to attack them but shooting upwards made the bolts lose a lot of power.
“I guess I have to get closer to them and use another kind of bolt.”
Soon afterward, I used all the wooden bolts, I decided to create the iron bolts, the crossbow became five kilograms heavy, and I fell on the floor. Not because of the crossbow weight, but because of the dizziness.
“Maybe I should break the mental limit next time.”
What an annoying sensation I only recovered after drinking half a bottle of lemonade. After I got rid of the dizziness, it was time to begin my counterattack. It took quite a while because of the darkness of the night, but I found the perfect place to use. The bathroom on the fifth floor. The window in that place was small, but I could use to shot at the damn birds, they would try to attack me, but it would take quite a while for them to destroy the wall. After all, they have didn’t much space in the middle of downtown to gain speed. Since they're so big, I could hear them flying around the block.
“It seems that they are not planning to give up about eating me.”
Since the birds knew that I couldn’t fly, they kept a low altitude to attack as soon as I appeared. On the fifth floor, we were at the same height, and I could hit them at close range and do a lot of damage. And so I did, I opened the window, and when the first mutant hawk was right in front of me, I began to shoot. Five iron bolts managed to hit the face of the enormous bird; I did more damage than I thought. The creature didn’t even have time to scream; it just died in midair and fell on the ground after a few seconds.
You have obtained 150 Evolution Orbs.
You have obtained 150 Evolution Coins.
‘Perfect!’
I even managed to break my sensorial limit again, but that could be done later. I had to kill the other two. However, the remaining mutant hawks didn’t drop their guard. I cause some damage, but again their wings and feathers protected them. To make matter worse, they were enraged thanks to the death of their fallen comrade, and they began to attack the bathroom wall fiercely. It was just my imagination, but I felt that their attacks were making the entire building tremble.
‘Fuck, I can’t aim like this!’
No problem, I just had to retreat and look for another place and repeat the process. Easier said than done; I couldn’t do that anymore. Every time I got close to the extern walls the damn things would attack, not only that, only a single attack was enough to make big cracks on the walls, and I didn’t want to wait to see the result of the second attack.
“Great, now what?”
My only option was to attack from the low ground again, but this time, the mutant hawks’ attacks would be more dangerous. I doubt that they would even care about their well-being, they would try to smash me, even if they have to crash their beaks on the ground.
“Wait a minute; how are they tracking me?”
I wasn’t making much noise while I was moving, while I had sweated a lot that day, my smell wasn't all that bad. But, I had another scent on my body.
“Are they feeling the scent of my blood? I guess that I have to test it.”
The wound in my head wasn’t healed yet, but I had no other choice but to use the bandages on my head. After all, the bandages had absorbed a lot of blood. I was almost sure that they would be the perfect bait. But how to use it? If I had another person with me, that person could stay with the bandages and lure the birds while I climb a few stairs and attack the birds from above. But I was alone; I had to solve the entire situation by myself.
“Maybe I should wrap the bandages in a bolt and shot to the other side of the street, but will they follow the smell?”
I had to try, but the chances were quite good actually. Hawks usually had excellent sight, but it was night, and two of them didn’t notice me earlier. It was worth a try. As long I stay away at least thirty meters from the walls, those monsters wouldn’t be able to pinpoint where I was. Thanks to that, I decided to risk everything on that plan. If they fall for my bait, I will attack them with everything I had. And to make every attack hit my target, I had to have a clear view and nothing around me to get on my way. So I decided to begin that plan on the terrace of that building. In that place, everything would be an advantage to me, the clear view, the high ground, and the distance between me and the hawks. They only had to take the bait.
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‘Here goes nothing.’
As soon as I opened the door of the last floor, I shot the bolt covered with bandages to the other side of the street. For a moment, their wings stopped flapping, but then they began to flap again and slightly, the sound had diminished.
“It worked!”
As soon as possible, I approached the border of the terrace and aimed the crossbow at the mutant hawks. The mutant monsters were attacking the ground with their beaks; their backs were exposed. Without mercy, I made a barrage of arrows hit their backs. The creatures screamed precisely like I had imagined they would; they screamed like their lives were being taken from them.
One of them died after five seconds of non-stop attacks, but the other was quite resilient. Even though the creature had fifteen iron bolts in its body, it tried to fly to attack me. I felt my blood run cold when I saw that; however, the hawk fell on the ground and died.
You have obtained 300 Evolution Orbs.
You have obtained 300 Evolution Coins.
That was what I needed, enemies with a lot of evolution coins. And again, I broke the limit, pretty good progress for a single day. But I knew that I wouldn’t live that long with so much imprudence. Exhausted, I fell on the floor. The creatures didn’t manage even to scratch me, but they exhausted me.
“No more hunting tonight, it’s time to sleep.”
However, I had another surprise. I heard that annoying voice again, but the content of the message had changed.
“Congratulations, you broke your sensorial limit ten times. Now you will receive a random sensorial skill… your new skill has been selected; you obtained the skill Radar.”
When the voice stopped talking, I felt a burning pain in my eyes, and after it ended, I saw a thing very similar to the crosshair on the right side of my field vision.
Skill List:
Concentration Lv02 12%: Raises your attack power and range by 2% each hour. The bonus resets when you sleep.
Crosshair Lv09 05%: Creates a crosshair in your field vision to aim at enemies.
Radar: Creates a radar in your field vision to detect any living creature on your surroundings. Effective Range: Sensorial limit (10) x 10 meters.
“Amazing, with this skill, I won’t be ambushed anymore… unless future enemies can run one hundred meters in less than a second. But better not worry about that right now.”
With that skill, I could pinpoint exactly where the monsters nearby could be found. With my senses, I could do that to some extent, but since I wasn’t used to it, I wasn’t accurate in my predictions.
After that, I managed to have a good night’s sleep. At sunrise, I woke up with a fresh mind and began to follow the river downstream again. However, I made a mental note not to go too far. The wound in my head wasn’t healed yet, and it would be more efficient for me to sleep in a safer place. Besides, even I deserved to take a shower once a day, and I only would be able to do that in that hotel.
A couple of hours passed after I woke up, and when I was about to turn around, I saw dozens of monsters’ corpses in front of an elementary school.
“Holy shit… someone really awesome seems to be around here.”
Every monster had only a single arrow in their foreheads, one shot, and one kill. In that pile of corpses, I found even monsters that I didn’t fight yet, like a huge fly and an anaconda. Besides, I also saw a mutant hawk in that pile. However, according to my experience, kill so many monsters in a single place wasn’t a smart thing to do. Besides for what reason would a person do that in front of elementary school? That place didn’t look safe, the walls weren’t that tall, and the building only had a single floor. But then a reason came to mind.
“Maybe…”
I didn’t have any real reason to approach that place, but something was bugging me, and I was also interested in the person who killed that many monsters. How did I know that a single person did that? Because all the beasts had died in the same way. The person who killed those monster were extremely skillful, that person would be a good ally, but even I knew that place would be a poor hideout. That person was skilled but even dumber than me? That wasn’t impossible, after all. Besides, was that person really an ally? It could be an enemy, instead. Moreover, no one has to help others.
“I did most of the things in the past two years by myself; I’m able to continue doing everything by myself, right? I’m getting better with the crossbow after all, but if I get some tips from the guy who did this I’ll probably get even better, and thus I’ll be able to bring them to my side even faster, right?”
While I was convincing myself, I approached the school, and then I saw something on the radar, I saw eleven dots. One of them was red, and the others were green. No blue dots nearby, so that place had no monsters inside it.
“So he isn’t alone, huh. But why the dots have different colors?”
A group of survivors was possibly a threat, but with my senses, I could hear them from afar and determine if that was indeed the case. However, even with my improved senses, I couldn’t hear all the sounds of the interior of a building. The walls would muffle the sounds, after all. So I had to approach silently.
To enter the building, I had to jump the walls and then open the windows of one classroom because the building’s front door was locked with some chains and a padlock. After that, everything went smoothly. I approached without making any sound, and then I finally found their room, but strangely, I didn’t hear any voices. I only heard a few sobs, moanings and the sound of stomachs growling.
‘What is this?’
I waited for a few minutes, but again, the sounds only repeated. Since I couldn’t determine if those people were possible threats or not, I decided to leave that place. But then I understood all those sounds; someone was hungry inside that room, the stomachs growling was proof of that. Someone was sad or hurt; that was why I heard the sobs. The moanings were a bit harder to understand, but I was sure of it. Someone was moaning because it was suffering a lot.
Thanks to that, I saw myself in a dilemma. Those survivors were in trouble, they need help, but did I have to help them? I didn’t have time to waste. I had to fight and bring my parents and siblings to this area as soon as possible. But if I ignore them, wouldn’t that make me a bad person? No, of course not. It would only make me an asshole who only thinks about himself and can’t do anything without his family. Besides, Harry, Rose, and Sarah helped me twice, even though they were also worried about their families.
‘Maybe I should start thinking about the big picture, bring my family to this area it’ll be troublesome if we were the only ones alive. I had to create a survivors camp and that hotel is big enough to shelter hundreds of people.’
That was the logical thing to do, I knew it. But I still wasn’t sure about that, after all, some of those people could cause problems and make me waste my time. While I thought that, I felt an unpleasant smell. That smell was coming from the room; it looked like something was rotting inside.
‘Ah, damn it.’
I made my choice; my conscience wouldn’t let me sleep if just turn around and walk away. It was a pain, but it was the right thing to do.
“Is someone there?”
After knocking on the door, I said that. However, they didn’t answer, but they stopped sobbing. I waited for a few seconds, but they refused to answer me. They were smarter than me; after all, intelligent people wouldn’t get themselves involved with strangers with the city in this state.
“My name is Ethan, and I heard some sobs coming from here, and I also felt a weird smell. But if you guys don’t have any problems or don’t want to talk to me just say the word and I’ll leave you guys alone.”
Again no answer, but when I was about to give up and leave the door of the room opened, just a little bit. A boy who seemed to be ten years old appeared and looked at me with a suspicious look on his face.
“Are you a bad guy?” The boy asked.
“I… don’t think that I am a bad guy.”
I hesitated, I wasn’t a criminal, but I considered leaving them alone, even though they were in trouble, that isn’t a thing a reasonable person would do, right?
“Are you alright?”
“No,” The boy answered with tears in his eyes. “We are scared, we are hungry, and our teacher is dying.”
The boy opened the door, and I could see a group of ten kids who were the same age as him. And in the corner of that room, I saw a blond woman sleeping in a table. She looked terrible, and her arm was rooting, and I could even see her arm’s muscles and bones.
‘Holy shit…’
The first members of my survivor’s camp would be a bunch of kids and a heavily wounded woman. I good start if I may say so myself.